The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the NAACP, the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Atlanta branch of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, and some individual members today asked the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to prohibit the Trump administration from misusing the voter information recently seized by the FBI in Fulton County, Georgia.
Please see legal documents here and here.
The FBI’s seizure swept up sensitive voter data, such as personal information and records that show how individuals voted, with no apparent restrictions on how the government may use that information. The civil rights organizations seek to protect the private voter data seized by the FBI and prohibit its use for any purposes other than the government’s criminal investigation, such as using the records in efforts to purge voters based on unreliable data or insufficient grounds, improperly disclosing information, doxing and intimidating voters, or otherwise furthering the administration’s attacks on the democratic process.
The Trump administration has sued 24 states, as well as the District of Columbia and Fulton County, to acquire private voter data. It aims to use the data to pressure states to purge their voter rolls based on unreliable, outdated information ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Already, three federal courts have rejected these suits, and two have criticized the administration’s pretextual explanations for its conduct. The Lawyers’ Committee, NAACP, and others are challenging the administration’s efforts in court.
Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law commented, “Having already failed to overturn the valid results of the 2020 presidential election by invoking false claims of widespread voter fraud, promoting fake electors, and inciting a violent insurrection, Trump and his minions are refusing to give up the ‘lost cause’, trampling even more voting and privacy rights in the process. Ironically, this is happening in the same jurisdiction where Trump pressured state elections officials to “find 11,870 votes” in an effort to declare himself the victor in 2020. The voters of Fulton County, or anywhere in the country, should not be collateral damage in this partisan political warfare.
These actions are part of a larger pattern. We are witnessing a broadscale assault on fair elections on many fronts, from going after voting records and squeezing out Black voters through redistricting, to improperly purging voters from the rolls and making it harder for everyone to vote. Some have called what we are witnessing a ‘soft coup’. Whatever we call it, we must all understand that our democracy is at risk.”
Robert Weiner, director of the voting rights project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, “We have very serious concerns about what the Trump administration could do with the voting records of thousands of people from Fulton County. When people registered to vote, they did not sign up for the release of their private information and social security numbers, especially not to politicians and their loyalists bent on advancing debunked conspiracy theories, purging eligible voters from the election rolls, and undermining our democratic institutions. We are talking about sensitive private information. After the DOGE disaster, voters need to be confident their private information is in safe and trustworthy hands.”
###
About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, established in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that fights for racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education. The organization’s work focuses on protecting voting rights, advancing economic justice, ensuring equal educational opportunities, and combating racial discrimination in all its forms.
